Mobile Medical Education (MoMEd) - how mobile information resources contribute to learning for undergraduate clinical students - a mixed methods study

BMC Medical Education

Research Article

Tim R Vincent¹  Bethany S Davies¹  Mark H Packer¹  Richard Vincent¹  Inam Haq¹  Jil Fairclough¹  Jethin Rafique¹ 

[1] Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Brighton, East Sussex, UK;

关键词: Focus Group;    Medical Student;    Mobile Device;    Personal Digital Assistant;    Focus Group Participant;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1472-6920-12-1

 received in 2011-09-07, accepted in 2012-01-12,  发布年份 2012

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundMobile technology is increasingly being used by clinicians to access up-to-date information for patient care. These offer learning opportunities in the clinical setting for medical students but the underlying pedagogic theories are not clear. A conceptual framework is needed to understand these further. Our initial questions were how the medical students used the technology, how it enabled them to learn and what theoretical underpinning supported the learning.Methods387 medical students were provided with a personal digital assistant (PDA) loaded with medical resources for the duration of their clinical studies. Outcomes were assessed by a mixed-methods triangulation approach using qualitative and quantitative analysis of surveys, focus groups and usage tracking data.ResultsLearning occurred in context with timely access to key facts and through consolidation of knowledge via repetition. The PDA was an important addition to the learning ecology rather than a replacement. Contextual factors impacted on use both positively and negatively. Barriers included concerns of interrupting the clinical interaction and of negative responses from teachers and patients. Students preferred a future involving smartphone platforms.ConclusionsThis is the first study to describe the learning ecology and pedagogic basis behind the use of mobile learning technologies in a large cohort of undergraduate medical students in the clinical environment. We have developed a model for mobile learning in the clinical setting that shows how different theories contribute to its use taking into account positive and negative contextual factors.The lessons from this study are transferable internationally, to other health care professions and to the development of similar initiatives with newer technology such as smartphones or tablet computers.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Davies et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2012. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.